A Game of Football
by Black-Neko-Chan
Summary: Gaara hates flag football. The only reason he plays it is because of Lee. But that's about to change. First fanfic, so don't be too harsh.


Hello everyone. This is my first fanfic, so don't be too harsh.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. Only this story.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hate football. Well, actually, I've never played football. Only flag football. But I hate it all the same. There's too much going on. Too much running, too much throwing, too much catching, and too much of me getting hit in the face by that damn Uchiha.

I had just been standing there, trying to figure out where the football was, when all of a sudden it came flying out of no where and smacked me in the face. I fell backwards, but the sand stopped me from hitting the ground.

"Hey Gaara! Isn't the sand supposed to protect you?" Naruto yelled. It's supposed to protect me when I'm threatened, I thought to myself, but obviously an evil football trying to decapitate me doesn't count. I said nothing to him.

"Next time I throw the football to you, try to catch it with your hands and not your face!" Sasuke shouted from the other side of the field.

"Don't be so mean Sasuke! I'm sure Gaara just wasn't ready yet!" Lee shouted. He walked up to me and gave me a big smile, "You'll get it next time Gaara!" After he said that he ran to join the rest of his team members, and I slowly walked up to mine. Sasuke was tapping his feet in annoyance at having to wait for me, and for a moment I thought that I should kill him, but I didn't.

All of that had happened yesterday. Now it was almost two o' clock. That was when we were supposed to begin our game, but we usually had to wait because Naruto was always late.

"Gaara! It's almost two!" Temari yelled from a different room. She wasn't on any of the teams but instead she was a cheerleader along with the blonde and pink-haired kunoichi, the shy Hyuga, and the girl called Tenten. None of them could really be called cheerleaders though, because the two kunoichi only cheered for Sasuke, Tenten cheered for Neji and Lee, Temari cheered for the lazy one, Shikamaru, and the Hyuga didn't cheer at all. She just blushed a lot when Naruto did something.

Temari stuck her head into the room I had been sitting in.

"Are you going to go? Kankuro's already left," Temari pointed out. I said nothing and waited for her to leave. She'd have to eventually. A couple of minutes passed, and she still stood there, waiting for an answer. Finally she admitted defeat and left.

I sat in the room and looked outside. Why should I go? Flag football was a stupid game. I couldn't catch the football (I had been able to use the sand to catch it, but then Kiba had said it was cheating), I couldn't throw the ball (I had also been able to use the sand, but now it wasn't allowed), and I couldn't run very fast, so by the time I had reached where I was supposed to be, someone else already had the football and I didn't know what was going on. I was even slower because of the gourd, but I wasn't about to leave it behind.

The only reason I played the game was because a certain spandex clad ninja had asked me to. Lee had told me that I would have fun. I hadn't. The game was stupid, as I had said before. What I did have fun doing, was watching Lee.

Since he was so fast, he got the football passed to him a lot so that he could get his team points. I enjoyed watching Lee run, because he looked very good doing it. You could see all of his muscles, and he looked so energetic and strong. So instead of playing the game, I watched Lee. It was fun watching Lee, and if I went to this game, I would be able to.

With that thought in mind, I got up and headed out the door. I was going to the stupid game. I would have to run, and try to catch the ball. And if by some miracle I did catch it , I would have to throw it or run some more. None of this I wanted to do, but I didn't want to miss Lee playing. Why couldn't I just be a cheerleader? I wouldn't actually cheer, but the Hyuga didn't and she was still a cheerleader, so why couldn't I be one? At least then I wouldn't have to participate in the game, and I could still watch Lee.

I walked to where the game was. It has already started. That didn't really surprise me, and maybe, I thought to myself, I could sneak up into a tree and watch from there before they noticed me. But no, Naruto spotted me of course.

"Hey Gaara! We thought you weren't going to show up!" He yelled. Everyone else stopped playing then and walked up to me.

"We already started the tournament, so hurry and get to your team," Neji said. I slowly walked over to the rest of my team, and wished that I had decided to stay home after all. It was all Lee's fault. I just had to see him.

We had four teams, each with three people. Usually there were supposed to be six people on a team, but there weren't enough of us to have four teams with six people.

Team number one's leader was Naruto. Both of his team members were also Naruto. He used the shadow clone jutsu to create two more of himself. Team number two's leader was Sasuke. I was on his team, and so was Shikamaru. Team number three's leader was Neji, and his teammates were Lee and Kiba. Team number four's leader was Kankuro, and he had Shino and Choji on his team.

Neji, Sasuke, and Naruto were the ones who decided to have a tournament, and I hated them all for it. Having a tournament means that everyone would be more competitive. And that meant that everyone would be playing at their best, and I would have even less of an idea of what was going on.

There would only be two parts of the tournament, because we only had four teams. There would be two matches today. The first match was going to be between team one and team two, and the second match would be between team three and team four. Then tomorrow, the two teams that won the matches would battle each other and the winner would be the champion. I thought the whole thing was stupid.

When the teams had gotten back into their places, the matches began. Our team was battling Naruto's, and he had the football. The other two Naruto's ran out into the field, and I stood in front of one of them and guarded. The Naruto that had the ball threw it toward me, and then the Naruto behind me jumped up and grabbed it. He started running with it, and got about halfway down the field before Sasuke ripped his flag off of his waist and threw it to the ground.

Naruto's team went to where they lost the ball then they all ran out into the field once the football had been passed. Naruto threw the football to the Naruto behind me, trying to do the same thing as before, but Sasuke got in front of me and grabbed while it was still in midair. Then he started running towards our side. One of the Naruto tried to grab it, but Sasuke dodged him and got all the way to our side. We scored points.

This was how most of the game had gone. Our team kept getting the football from Naruto's, and Sasuke scored points, with some help from Shikamaru. I hadn't done much, but that was fine by me.

After our match we walked over to the other field and watched the rest of the other team's game. Kankuro's team was getting beat. Unlike me, Kankuro was good at playing this vile game, but Neji was obviously better. They won, and that meant tomorrow we would have to battle Neji's team.

"Gaara! Wait up!" I stopped walking and waited. I was going to head home, but now it seemed that I would be delayed by whoever was calling my name.

I turned around and saw Lee running up to me. My breath quickened and my chest felt strange, Suddenly I didn't care how long I would have to stay outside.

"So, tomorrow you're team is going to battle mine," Lee said to me when he caught up, "Your team has good players on it and so does ours. It will be interesting to see who wins." It seemed funny to me how energetic Lee could get over just thinking about the match. It almost made me want to smile, but I wouldn't do that of course.

"I guess," I said. Lee's face fell and his enthusiasm died.

"You don't like flag football very much, do you Gaara?" Lee asked. I didn't say anything to him, because the answer should have been pretty obvious.

" You could always stop playing. You don't have to. You should do whatever you want to Gaara!" Lee said. Good, I thought to myself, then I won't have to play this stupid game anymore.

"Will you at least continue to play until the end of the tournament?" Lee asked me.

"...Sure," I said. I sighed. Why did he have to ask me that? Now I would have to play tomorrow. I just couldn't say no to him.

"Good! Then you need to practice today! If you play like you normally do, then tomorrow you will lose for sure. I don't mean anything bad, ...but, you aren't very good," Lee said.

"You mean I suck," I said.

"No! You don't suck!" Lee shouts.

"Yes I do, and I know that I do," I replied.

"Well, I'm okay at it, so maybe I can help you practice," Lee suggested. It wasn't my original plan to practice today, but if Lee was going to help me, then sure, I'd practice.

"Fine," I said. Lee's face lit up.

"Great! Then follow me, and I'll get you to play better!" Lee yelled. He grabbed my hand and took off running, dragging me behind.

We reached a small field and Lee told me to run. He said that he wanted to see how fast I was. I got ready to start running, but then he stopped me and told me that he wanted to see how fast I was without the gourd on. I told him that I wasn't going to take it off, and he argued with me for a while, but then he gave up and told me to do whatever I was comfortable with. He had looked so sad and disappointed that I took the gourd off. He got happy then, and for a moment I thought he was going to run up to me and hug me (not that I would have minded), but he didn't.

So we kept practicing. Lee had me practice catching the football, throwing the football, and he had me run after him and try to get his flag off.

I was standing far away from Lee. We were still practicing, and now I was supposed to be catching the football when Lee threw it to me. I however, was instead watching Lee. He looked extremely sexy when he was getting ready to throw a football.

Suddenly something whacked me in the side of the head and I fell backwards. Sand caught me and lifted me back to my feet. Then, Lee appeared out of nowhere and was standing about ten inches away from my face.

"Are you okay?! I didn't know that you weren't ready yet! I'm so sorry Gaara! Please forgive me!" Lee cried out. Then he looked down at the ground and hair hung in his face.

"It's fine Lee," I told him. I noticed that there was a hint of annoyance in my voice, but he didn't seem to notice and Lee reverted almost instantly back to his normal self.

"That's good! Do you want to keep practicing?" Lee asked.

"No. I think I just want to go home now," I answered him.

"Okay! I think you've gotten better now Gaara! You should be able to play well tomorrow!" Lee said. He gave me a good-guy grin and I feel my checks grow slightly hotter because he complimented me.

"You... play well too," I said quietly.

"Oh? Thank you," Lee said, and then he was blushing as well. There was silence for a moment, and then I cleared my throat and told Lee that I was leaving. Lee said goodbye to me and the we both went our separate ways.

The next day seemed to pass quicker than normally. That was good for everyone that wanted the day to go by fast, but for me it wasn't. I didn't want to go play football. I had to however, because I had told Lee that I would. And so now, my siblings and I were walking to where the game would be. Temari would of course be cheering for Shikamaru, and Kankuro was coming because he said that he wanted to see who would win.

When we reached the field where the game was being held, Kankuro and Temari left, and I headed over to my team. Well, actually, I headed over to Sasuke, because Shikamaru wasn't here yet. He probably thought it was too troublesome to get out of his house and come here. All of the other teams players were here already. They seemed to be slightly annoyed that Shikamaru wasn't here. After a few minutes of waiting, Shikamaru arrived and the game began.

Our team got the football first. Shikamaru had it currently, and he passed it to Sasuke, who ran with the football to our goal, but Kiba yanked his flag off. We walked to where the flag had been dropped and then put the football where it should be. The game started again, and Shikamaru threw the football to Sasuke, but Neji got in the way and grabbed the football. He runed right past me and made it to his side of the field.

"Why didn't you grab his flag? He ran right past you and you didn't do anything!" Sasuke said to me. I ignored him and told myself that I couldn't have grabbed the Hyuga's flag because he ran by me too fast.

The game continued like this for a while. Sasuke and Shikamaru scored points, and so did the other team. I didn't do anything but run around, which was perfectly fine by me. Currently the game was tied.

Kiba had the football. Sasuke was right behind him. He sped up and got in front of Kiba and went to grab his flag. Kiba tried to dodge, and right when Sasuke grabbed the flag, Kiba tripped and fell on Sasuke.

Suddenly Sakura and Ino were on the field, crowding around the fallen Uchiha. Everyone else slowly joined the crowd as well. I stayed put.

Sasuke and Kiba broke away from the crowd. Kiba looked fine, but Sasuke was limping, and the two kunoichi were practically begging him to not play anymore, and to instead sit by them and rest. Sasuke ignored them and rejoined our team.

After everyone had made sure that Sasuke wanted to keep playing, the game started again. We recaptured the football, and Shikamaru looked like he was going to throw it to Sasuke, but everyone on the other team was blocking him, and he had a limp, so instead he threw it to me, who was being guarded by no one..

I silently cursed Shikamaru. Every time the football was thrown to me, it seemed to hit me in the face, and it looked like this one wasn't going to be any different. I put my hands up to block the evil football, but instead it landed neatly in them.

"Run!" Sasuke shouted. So I started running. I'd never had the football before, and it made me nervous to have it now. I just wanted to get rid of it, but I couldn't drop it. I had to get it to our side. So I ran faster than I'd ever ran before. I concentrated on the goal and nothing else, so that way I could get rid of the football.

Suddenly I felt myself being pulled backwards. There was a tug on my clothing, and I guessed that someone had grabbed them as well as my flag. The tug became a pull and I was spun around. Lee was there. He was the one that had grabbed me. He pulled me again and then my body was against his, and my lips were locked perfectly in place with Lee's. Lee was kissing me and I felt fine with that.

Actually, I couldn't describe how I felt. I could feel a stronger feeling than anything I'd ever felt before. This feeling made me aware of how much I'd wanted Lee to kiss me and hold me like this.

Lee broke the kiss and pulled away from me, taking the flag around my waist with him. I looked around and noticed that the game had been stopped, and everyone was staring at us. I also noticed that my checks were burning up, and so were Lee's. Then, Lee did something that was very much not like him and ran away, leaving me still standing there with everyone looking at me. Thank you Lee, I though sarcastically to myself.

Neji cleared his throat and everyone stopped looking at me and instead looked elsewhere, probably trying to convince themselves that they really hadn't just witnessed that.

"Well, what should we do now?" Sasuke asked.

"We should continue the game tomorrow. It'll be better then when Lee is back and you don't still have a limp," Neji said.

"Okay. We'll do that then. We're going to continue the game tomorrow," Sasuke announced to everyone. They all started to talk then and some people left. Temari and Kankuro got up and ran to me.

"Are you okay Gaara?" Temari asked.

"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" I questioned.

"You did just get kissed by a guy," Kankuro said.

"I'm fine," I said again, stronger this time.

"Let's go then," Temari said.

"I'm staying here. I'll be back later," I said.

"Are you sure?" Temari asked. I didn't respond to her question. Temari sighed.

"Just don't do anything stupid Gaara," Temari advised. She turned and started to walk away with Kankuro following behind her. I stood still and waited. The people that were still here slowly left. A few of them looked at me as they passed, but they didn't say anything. Soon, I had been left alone.

I stood there for a few minutes, and soon I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around as saw Lee. I had been right. I had known that he would come here. He stood still and scratched his head, betraying his nervousness.

"Gaara. I thought you would have left already," Lee said. I didn't respond to him. His face took on a reddish tint and he kicked at the ground.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't know what made me do that! I didn't mean to offend you or disgust you, and I hope that I didn't disgust you because I would like to still be your friend! If you don't ever want to see me again though, I understand and-" Lee started.

"Lee," I said loudly, cutting him off. I walked over to him. He was still looking at the ground, so I grabbed his face with both hands and make him look at me. His face showed his nervousness and how sorry he was. He looked very cute when he was sorry.

"I'm so sorry Gaara. I didn't mean to upset you," He said. I leaned closer to him. My face was only inches away from his, and I could feel his breath on my check. I pulled him closer to me, and then I kissed him. He seemed stunned for a moment, but then he returned the kiss. I parted my lips and his tongue darted in and began to explore the caverns of my mouth. A moment later, our tongues were battling for supremacy. I ended up winnig, and then the kiss ended soon after.

We moved our heads away from each other. Both of us were breathing heavily, and Lee's arms were around my waist. I moved my hands from his face and rested them on his hips.

"Gaara, I thought-" Lee said.

"Shh," I interrupted. I put my index finger on his lips.

"You thought wrong. Now," I asked, "what do I need to do to get you to kiss me during the game again?" Lee grinned mischievously.

"I kissed you," He stated, "in order to make you stop running so that I could get your flag away from you. In order for me do it again, you need to get the football more often." Then I understood. He was trying to tempt me into continuing to play this stupid game. And, I thought to myself, it's working.

That night I was sitting up in a tree watching the moon. I started to think of Lee, and then I could almost feel the sensation of his lips on mine.

"So, I need to get the football more often, eh?" I asked myself. I allowed a small smile to grace my lips. I loved football.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, so that was my first fanfic. Thank you to everyone who read this and to those who reviewed it. Also, thank you flag football. You inspired me to write this. However, I still loathe you.


End file.
